FireWorks, Inn at Bay Fortune, Fortune, Prince Edward Island

Rooted on the coast near Souris, P.E.I., The Inn at Bay Fortune’s gracious gardens and talented kitchen are embedded in island food culture. It is the home of Chef Michael Smith’s dream restaurant. Any one who has watched him in action knows that he casts a large presence and his newly renovated restaurant kitchen reflects it. With a 25 foot, brick lined wall enclosing the fire powered kitchen and a garden to supply the inn, his food could hardly be fresher or more seasonal, ending with a final hurrah early each October.

With his wife, Chastity and a veteran team of islanders, summer 2015 was their first season. For Michael, coming back to the Inn is a return to his roots. For seven years in the 1990’s, he manned the stoves, bringing international fame to this small country inn. For Chastity, being an innkeeper is a chance to share her Maritime roots, stylish flair and love of entertaining.

For as long as I’ve known him, he has had a passion for cooking with fire. His annual bonfires, surrounded by his chef buddies, are legendary.

Today, FireWorks is a dream come true, a chance to share with others the ancient art of live-fire cooking with all the aromas and flavours. The Feast format, where diners are seated at a long table, is a perfect showcase for the myriad of locally-sourced ingredients, all 100% prepared over live fire in the Fire Kitchen. Chef Michael writes: “Our island is a chef’s paradise. We are a giant green farm floating in the deep blue sea surrounded by white sandy beaches and filled with true stories of locally produced food. There is no better place on the planet to enjoy a true ‘Farm to Fork’ experience and we are proud to share with you every single ingredient found here.”

Whether it’s foraging for wild mushrooms in the backwoods or picking wild watercress in a stream nearby the inn before evening service, the ingredients are a pride-filled menu of stories. Much of the produce is grown at the Inn or picked up at the Farmer’s Market in Charlottetown. The chicken, pork and lamb are raised to their particular specifications on nearby farms. Seafood arrives in the kitchen daily from local fishers. Every night at 6 pm is “Oyster Hour” as they shuck through a pile of our world-famous Colville Bay and Fortune Bay oysters in the actual kitchen where Chef Michael Smith’s first TV series The Inn Chef was filmed. In the Fire Kitchen try a slab of their hot-smoked salmon fresh from the smokehouse, meet the chefs and see the FireWorks up close. There are creative cocktails crafted from locally distilled spirits or a chilly beer brewed on Prince Edward Island. It’s as close to an true Island experience as you can get in one evening.